Summer is officially over for us!

We were grateful Andy's mom opened up her house to us this summer while Andy interned at Toyota. We made our 3 day trek home and are back into the groove of student life once again. Here are some of the things I liked about being with Andy's mom.

She loves to garden and has wonderful fruit trees and beautiful flowers. I would always find these in my bathroom or sitting on her kitchen table. She loved going out and picking them and spreading them around her house!

The kids enjoyed working in the garden with grandma. Lucy loved helping with flowers and Ethan loved picking fruit off the trees and watching her tomatoes grow.
Here is a picture from the beach we would go to and she lives up on this hill. Can you get any better than that? It really is a beautiful beautiful place!
I don't think we would ever tire of the fresh lemonade and orange juice we drank! All we had to do was pick the fruit and the goodness was ours!! We were totally spoiled. Now it's back to no juice or juice from the can. It doesn't even compare!

Andy's mom is a kind thoughtful woman. She babysat on many occasions for me so I could run errands or so Andy and I could go out. She put up with our noise and chaos. And she is talented in so many ways. One night Andy and I were going out to visit his friend who lives in Hollywood. We wanted to bring flowers so in a very short time Andy's mom had gone through her yard, found a vase and created this beautiful bouquet.

Well, we all survived the summer. My parents survived over a month of us. My mother in law survived over a month of us and we survived! I spent a LOT of time with these kiddos this summer given there were no friends around. It was fun to do everything together. It is nice to be back with friends but it was also nice to be a family. The kids were good sports this summer with all of our moving around, fun adventures, and long road trips!!
So, summer fun is over and now it's time to find a job!!! It has been nice being back and seeing friends and it feels so so good to have our first year behind us. It's a good feeling to be second years!!

Sewing 101

After Lego Land we took Blake back to our house (grandma's house!) and Amy offered to have Lucy go to her house. Lucy spent the day thinking about it but she finally made up her mind when Amy offered to teach her how to sew. It was a definite YES. So off Lucy went to Amy's house and Amy spent the weekend teaching Lucy to sew. Yes, she might be the nicest aunt ever! Lucy sewed every stitch on this dress (minus the pockets that were just put on last night) So here she is with her final product and she is pretty proud of this skirt!

Asleep for 17 hours!!

Kind of crazy but on Saturday night I went to bed not feeling so great. I figured I was getting a head cold - no big deal. Well, I ended up with a head cold along with a fever and I slept for 17 hours in a 24 hour period!! 16 of those hours were consecutive with the exception of going to the bathroom and directing Andy to the kids church clothes. Is that crazy or what?!?!? It was like my body just completely shut down over a head cold! By monday morning I was pretty normal and now I'm fine. I don't think I've ever slept that long before.

Lego Land

We had fun going to Lego Land with Amy and Mike's family. We did a good job wearing the kids out and what better way to finish off the day than with an In-N-Out burger!!
I think Amy was scared to go on the little airplane ride! ha! ha!
This was one of the favorite rides in the heat of the day. We all got blasted with water and were pretty soaked by the time we got off!

Ethan's older cousins climbed this wall first and when I asked if they thought Ethan would make it to the top they said "uh no way. It was kind of scary up at the top." I told them I thought that he would be able to do it. So we all watched and cheered Ethan on as he got higher and higher and he DID IT!! It was a high wall but he did it!

Baseball game

We had fun going to the Dodgers game with Mike and Amy's family. The kids were happy to be reunited, eat lots of treats, and were happy to know the fun wasn't over at the end of the game because Amy and Mike came back to the house to spend the nightDoes Lucas look like he's happy to be in this picture?!?!??!Blake and Ethan
Julia

Jeffrey was also with Mike and Amy for the weekend. It was fun to see him again. Funny kid!

Cousins

Jane and Cole are 6 weeks apart. They were cute together. Cole needs to teach Jane to walk and Jane needs to teach Cole to eat!! Jane is a giant compared to Cole!! Don't these two look like twins or brothers? After about 30 minutes of being together the first time this summer, Blake asked his mom if they could go. Ethan was also acting a bit odd. It's funny to think of now because they ended up hitting it off and having tons of fun together. Now when they are together they are inseparable! And how do they spend their time? They are exploring in the yard, playing legos, playing indiana jones, hide and seek, throwing rocks, eating apples from Grandma's tree and wrestling.
This is how I saw them a lot - in a constant state of wrestling. They loved it. They were stinky and sweaty by the end of each day together! I wish we all lived closer.

L.A. Fabric District

Sara and I had a very very fun day shopping in the fabric district in L.A. My sister-in-law was nice enough to meet us there and show us all the places to go. We all had a lot of fun together. We were going to take the kids until Amy said "I'd rather shoot myself in the head than go there with kids"so we took Amy's advice and Andy's mom was kind enough to watch not only my kids but Sara's too! Even as a non-sewer felt excited being there and couldn't believe the prices! I even came home with some fabric to make a few things. I mostly enjoyed watching Sara (who is a great seamstress) and seeing her excitement!! It was a really fun day!Here are our purchases from the day

And here is the lady who made it all possible. She is such a kind person to watch all of these kids so Sara and I could go have fun!! Thanks!

Look what Andy came home with!

I had hopes all summer of Andy being given a car at the end of his internship just for his great work, or just because Toyota is such a nice company to work for, or just because they felt bad about the car Andy was driving, or just because he's a good guy.....
Well, Andy came home with this. So, he was given a car after all but it was (unfortunately) just to test drive for several days (bummer)! So, each night he'd plug in his car and off he'd go the next morning. It was kind of cool and would have been even greater if it had been given to him!

Worse case of stinky feet ever!

My sister in law may be one of the few to appreciate this post given she has spent time around these nasty feet this summer. For the record Lucas' stinky feet problem may be solved. He has had the WORST stinky feet I have ever smelled. We had to start putting his shoes outside because they would stink up any room they were in. It was really nasty. Amy gave me tea to soak his feet in. Apparently it works. Who knew? I soaked his shoes over night and scrubbed them and I am happy to report the stink is gone!!

Rocky Beach

We had lots of fun at the Rocky beach. There were lots of delighted squeals as the kids found crabs, sea anemonies, star fish and other interesting things. They were really excited to be able to hold the star fish. Even Lucy got brave enough to hold it! Lucy was a bit of a nervous nelly climbing on the rocks. Ethan however was in his element. He loved it and the closer he could get the the edge of the rock without falling in the water the better! We all had a great time exploring!

Glad it's behind us!!

I always find myself thinking things like "one week ago today I was doing ________" or "one year ago today I was
doing _____________" Andy thinks it's funny that I do that and I always assumed everyone did that.
Anyway, one year ago we had just sold our house and today we had an abundance of love shown to us as friends showed up to help load our truck and clean our house. It makes me want to cry just thinking of all the love and service we received from sooooo many people the week we moved to Indiana. I will always be grateful for the wonderful Michigan friends we have.
I am VERY VERY glad to say that was a YEAR ago. I am so so grateful to have the past year behind us. As we are getting ready to head back to B-town again it makes me feel so glad to know we are heading back to an unpacked (even though it's small) house and friends and I have high hopes of seeing Andy more this year - although I will believe it when I see it!

1 year

When we were in Salt Lake I took Jane to Temple Square to take her 1 year pictures. She did NOT want to sit still so I was lucky to get some semi decent pictures. Here is our one year old sweetie!
This is cute because she loves this bear her Grandma "C" made for her. When I pulled it out and gave it to her she was so surprised and happy to see it she gave it a big hug!

San Diego

We had tons of fun taking a little trip to San Diego last week. We spent the days with Sara and her kids and the evenings with Chris and Carol's family! We spent time swimming, visiting the mormon batallion museum, having pic-nics, playing at the park, and going to the beach!

Sara, Amy, Ethan, Libby, Lucy, Jenna, and Lucas

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture with the entire family but we LOVED spending time with Chris, Carol, Marc, Jonathan, Rebecca, and Gerrit. They were so good to the kids!!

Lucas, Jenna, and Ethan looking out at San Diego

Here is Lucy panning for gold at the Mormon Batallion Museum

Ethan, Libby, and Lucy

Lucy, Libby, Ethan, Jenna, and Lucas

The girls wanted to be buried in the sand and had fun with the exception of some sand in the eyes. Sara was kind enough to bury them and then Ethan wanted a turn too!!